by Sarah Segall | Oct 19, 2019 | Preschool
This week we continued working with “The five Senses” “Los Cinco Sentidos”. During this week we worked on identifying and classifying the senses.We focused on our sense of sight and sense of taste. Children did a great job seeing objects and describing them, as well, we worked with a fantastic book “Brown Bear, brown Bear, What Do You See? / Oso Café, Oso Café, Qué Es Lo Que Tu Ves? The narrator of this book asks various animals what they see with the response usually being another animal, the respondent is then asked what they themselves see, and the process is repeated. It features a
Brown Bear/ Oso Café
Red Bird/Pájaro Rojo
Yellow Duck/ Pato Amarillo
Blue Horse/Caballo Azul
Green Frog/rana Verde
Purple Cat/Gato Morado
White Dog/ Perro Blanco
Black Sheep/ Cordero Negro
Goldfish/ Pez Dorado
In addition, during our sense of taste the kids learned that the senses working together with the tongue, mouth and nose. These senses send messages to the brain and we can taste things, as well, that we have taste buds that help us taste different things; sweet-dulce, sour-ácido, salty-salado, bitter-amargo. They learned that the sense of taste also helps to protect us from eating spoiled or poisonous foods.
The kids did a great job in our science activities related with the senses of learning. Their favorite part was tasting different flavors in our classroom, kids love sweets flavors
.
LIBRO
Oso Café
El Gusto
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This week was such a wonderful week, lot of fun, Preschoolers had a wonderful time and teachers too!!
Macky
by Ivary & Paola | Oct 19, 2019 | 4th/5th Grade News
History & Geography
This week we continued learning about the Age of Exploration. Our objectives were:
- explain why Portugal launched missions of exploration
- explain why Europeans needed spices
- identify new technologies that allowed Europeans to launch voyages of exploration
Students also received their explorer for their presentation at the end of this unit. Their speech will be written entirely in class but students are encouraged to dress up!
Mathematics
This week we continued working with multiplication and division . Our objectives were:
- divide by a 2-, 3-, or 4-digit number by a 2-digit number
- use order of operations to simplify a numeric expression
- use efficient strategies to solve multi-step problems involving multiplication and division
- express and interpret the product or quotient appropriately
Lectura
As we conclude our first unit in literacy, we look back to our original questions: What is cultural heritage? How is cultural heritage passed through generations. and why is it important? We were fortunate to welcome some wonderful guests speakers on Thursday. Denice from Republica Dominicana, Marilu from Mexico, Analia from Argentina, Carla from Argentina and Jose from Colombia, shared their perspectives and words of wisdom on the subject. What a wonderful opportunity for our students to experience. They not only had the pleasure of trying (and making!) delicious traditional foods from these countries, but also hear the diversity of the Spanish dialects spoken in Latin America. We were honored! Gracias!
We will be having our end of the unit assessment next week on Thursday October 24th. We had originally planned this assessment for Monday October 21st, but we have made a change to make sure we have enough time to be fully prepared and answer all the questions before the test. During this assessment students will be asked to apply reading comprehension strategies and skills, as well as their understanding of the Spanish grammar concepts seen this far. This includes: subject and predicate, common and proper nouns, adjectives and adverbs, verbs and verb phrases.
Students getting ready for their spelling assessment.
Ciencias
Focus question: How do the parts of the solar system interact?
Students worked in pairs with a set of solar system cards. Based on previous knowledge, information on the cards, and information provided by the teacher, students organized the objects into a model of the solar system. Students had closely look at the description of the objects and sort them into different categories (generated by them). They also had to compare and contrast the objects using descriptive vocabulary.
- The solar system includes a star, the Sun, and the objects that orbit it, including Earth, the Moon, seven other planets, their satellites, and smaller objects.
- The pulling force of gravity keeps the planets and other objects in orbit by continuously changing their direction of travel.
by Macky & Veronica | Oct 12, 2019 | Preschool
We continued working with the “Five Senses” Unit and the kiddoss did a great job learning Spanish vocabulary and singing songs related to our unit. Also, this week we read the book “It’s Pumpkin Time!” We are learning the pumpkin life cycle and sequencing illustrations from this. Vocabulary:
Semilla-seed,
Brote-sproud,
Planta-plant,
Flor-flower,
Fruta-fruit
calabaza-pumkin
We did sensorial and fine motor skills activities like cutting, with their fingers, a little pieces of orange paper and gluing it on the paper pumpkin, painting paper plates with orange tempera, painting a white paper pumpkin with tempera and Legos (for texture).
It was also amazing to share with all the preschoolers our Bi-Zi Farm field trip. Miss Veronica and I (Macky) were very happy to see all those little ones enjoying feeding the animals, playing and collecting pumpkins. Thank you to all parents to give us the opportunity to have that special time.
Libro
¡Tiempo de Calabazas!
Have a great long weekend!
by Jackie & Marci | Oct 12, 2019 | Kindergarten News
La Lectura
This week we began the reading book “Annabelle Swift, Párvula”, the story is about Annabelle’s first day at school and how her sister Lucy tried to help her with her natural fears of going to school or the first time.
In order to develop reading comprehension, students were asked to reflect on their own experience and what their feelings were on the first day of kindergarten. The children were invited to talk about their experiences, when someone may have tried to tell them what to do at school and if the advice was helpful.
We also did an activity where the children used some words and concepts related to the book, to introduce them to the use of rhyming words in order to build vocabulary and the use of various strategies to discover word meaning.
We practiced strokes and sounds of new letters, realted to the Estrellita program: n, f, b and j, also they identified those letters in Annabelle’s book.
We learned new words of the day: Me (I), Gusta (like), Los (the). They felt very motivated to think and say their ideas in Spanish to form the sentences and then wrote the ideas in their notebooks and drew a picture about it. They will start to connect the way we get ideas and how we plan a piece of writing as they are introduced to the writing process. Although students may not be able to write yet, they can begin to understand the process. They are encouraged to practice by writing words chosen on the whiteboard.
The craft of the week was a nice paper pumpkin, where the children practiced their fine motor skills.
Las matemáticas
We continued working on our knowledge of the numbers of 22-24, stroke, quantity, even or odd. We are counting one by one with the goal to reach one hundred.
We practiced with the hands, cut paper, dominoes and tallies, doing fun activities and games where children can better understand the concept of quantity and the process of starting to make sums.
Robot poster, All about me!
Science
This week we learned about the process that crops go through from farm to market. The class had fun looking at different foods and identifying the steps they went through to get to the store.
Our weekly objectives were to:
• describe the farmers job
• explain by Farmers grow crops
• identify crops as plants grown on farms for uses food
• describe how some food comes from farms as crops
• sequence of events of crops from farm to store ( planted, harvested, transported, packaged)
History & Geography
We began our first history and geography unit this week: The First Inhabitants of North America. We read a Native American ABC book that shared lots of facts about different tribes, their culture, and habitats. Each student wrote in their journal about something interesting they have learned so far.
Our weekly objectives were to:
• understand that Native Americans were the first inhabitants of North America
• explain that there are many tribes of Native Americans
English Sight Words of the Week
black, like, has, was, we, she
by Marci & Ivary | Oct 12, 2019 | First Grade News
La Lectura
This week we read Las crías de los animales. Our objectives were:
- compare and contrast the different animals in the story
- distinguish initial sounds in single and multisyllabic words
- use adjectives to describe different animals
Las matemáticas
This week we wrapped up Addition up to 10. Our objectives were:
- write addition sentences
- solve real-world problems
- review addition to 10 by playing trashketball
Science
This week in our Astronomy domain we learned more about the inner and outer planets. Each student worked on their solar system flip book.
Our weekly objectives were to:
• identify Earth as a planet and our home
• classify the sun as a star
• understand that Earth orbits the Sun
• explain that our solar system includes the sun and the planets that orbit around it
• indicate that there are eight planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune)
History & Geography
This week in our Ancient Egyptian studies we learned about the Great Sphinx of Giza and the pharaoh Hatshepsut. The class had fun sculpting their own sphinx.
Our weekly objectives were to:
• locate Egypt on a world map or globe, and identify it as part of Africa
• explain that much of Egypt is in the Sahara Desert
• describe how pyramids were built
• identify the Sphinx
• explain the significance of the Sphinx in ancient Egypt
• identify Hatshepsut as a pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the significance of this
English Sight Words of the Week
he, her, has, had, have, get
by Jill & Sarah | Oct 12, 2019 | 2nd/3rd Grade News
La Lectura
This week we read the story Rugby y Rosy. This is a great story about two dogs getting used to each other and then one dog leaving to go into training and then work as a seeing-eye service dog. Our learning objectives this week were to:
- identify and use helping verbs in sentences
- identify varying sentences formats and create our own
- read fluently as a whole group, in pairs, and individually
- write cursive letters Ss and Pp
- Test on spelling words with H (a silent letter in Spanish).
- Add to their autobiography timeline
Next week we will have a special guest on Tuesday. Joy Ross is a local mom and YouTuber who went blind 12 years ago. She will come in to share her experience with her first and second guide dogs.
Las matemáticas
We worked on front-end estimation to see if our calculations are reasonable answers or not. We identified the dígito principal in vary8ing numbers in order to correctly estimate. We then completed our unit on Mental Math with Rounding. Students were tested in a non-traditional format: on prodigy.
Our next unit will be on addition facts up to 10,000. Students should be beyond using their fingers at this point! We will bring back out some addition timed tests to check their fact fluency. Flashcards are always helpful if your kiddo needs a refresher.
This week we spent our time researching and taking notes on that research. Students are encouraged to properly document when they find information outside of school too.
Science
- Describe tools and methods used to study space and share information
- Identify and use vocabulary important to the process of science
- Describe the life and contributions of Mae Jemison
What an amazing night we had viewing the moon, Jupiter and Saturn! Thanks for braving the cold and coming out to view our solar system!
History & Geography
- Explain how rivers help people trade with each other
- Understand the meaning of the following vocabulary: toll, network, canal
Character Education
Continuing with our Teamwork and Cooperation theme we discussed how they had used cooperation in school during the last week and at our Field Trip.
Students also practiced their cooperation skills to recreate scenes from last week’s cooperation video.
The class was also given the task to cooperatively get an exercise ball from one side of the room to the other, with every student touching the ball at some point, no hands, and the ball could not touch the floor. It was very interesting to see and hear the cooperation! Bossing does NOT equal cooperation! They were successful using two different methods!
by Ivary & Paola | Oct 12, 2019 | 4th/5th Grade News
History & Geography
This week we wrapped up our unit on the Maya Aztec and Inca. Our objectives were:
- review whole unit vocabulary with a word search
- complete a team test by collaborating with classmates to discuss each question
- complete a short essay performance task as a team
Mathematics
This week we continued working on multiplying and dividing. Our objectives were:
- divide numbers by 10, 100, and 1000 using patterns
- use rounding and related multiplication facts to estimate quotients
- divide a 2-, 3-, or 4- digit number by a 2-digit number
Lectura y Ciencias
This week in Lectura, we continued to work on the objectives from last week. We finished our writing project, Describir un objeto. Make sure you stop by our bulletin board to see the final pieces. Students did such a great job using descriptive, sensory language and creative ways to put their paragraph together. They used figuratives language such as similes and metaforas. And yes, my object was a chestnut! Castana! Although our time was limited, we were able to read through chapter 11 of our book Con carino Amaila. Students were assigned to read chapter 12 this weekend.
In Science, we completed our studies Phases of the Moon. During the rest of the month, we will continue to look at our Moon calendar and record the sequence of changes we observe.
On Wednesday night , we had our stars viewing party. We were so fortunate to have Mr. Stan, who volunteered his time to come teach us about the mysteries of space and telescopes. We got to see Saturn, Jupiter, and of course to Moon! It was a real gift! On Thursday, we read(and listen to) our FOSS science resources, made some progress on our mini-research projects and got to recreate the phases of the Moon in a very “sweet” way!
Character Education
We had a lot of fun with our cooperation/teamwork activities this week!
by Macky & Veronica | Oct 5, 2019 | Preschool
“I am falling for you sweet October”
― CHARMAINE J FORDE
Welcome October and our new unit is here! “The Five Sense”/ “Los Cinco Sentidos” The five senses to our students are really important because children need to have an understanding of the world they live in. Understanding comes through their experiences of this world that 
they can only have through their five senses. It’s also important that we emphasize to the little kids the importance of the five senses since our senses do more than let us see the sky, smell a flower, taste a sandwich, hear the music from the radio, or feel snowflakes against our skins. The five senses also enable all of us to learn, enjoy different activities, protect ourselves, and have a clear picture of the things around us.
Thus, we started talking about five senses doing fun projects in which we used our five senses:hearing music in music class on Wednesdays was an amazing experience for them, they were very exited going to a different class and sharing with the older kids..
As well, they could smell, touch, see, hear, and taste delicious popcorns. We also made five senses puppets and crowns!!
New vocabulary;
Ojos-eyes,
Lengua-tongue,
Manos-hands,
Oido-ears,
Nariz-nose,
Vista-sight,
Gusto-taste,
Tacto-touch,
Oido-hearing,
Olfato-smell.
They had a lot of fun singing songs, dancing and learning the vocabulary.
Libro:
Mis Cinco Sentidos-My five Senses
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Have a Great weekend!
by Jackie & Marci | Oct 5, 2019 | Kindergarten News
La Lectura
It was a great week as the children were very excited to start their new reading books. They were very focused on listening to all the instructions on how to use their book. They first listened to the sound of each word and then repeated it, and then they read with their classmates. They have a lot of fun choosing the color of their reading binder too! Please remember that they should bring their new reading binder home and then back to school every day (except Wednesdays) for the whole year. They should also mark off on square on their treasure sheet every time they read a little book. They will turn this in for a trip to the treasure box!
We continued reading the book “Un oso nuevo en la escuela” ( A new bear in the school). Using words and concepts related to this book students identified and reviewed the words we have introduced. We related them to things that students need to get ready to go to school and also different types of schoolwork and activities. The students took turns suggesting simple answers that described what a student is and does at school. With this activity the children learned new words:
-Pintar (paint)
-Cantar (sing)
-Comer (eat)
-Colorear (coloring)
-Escribir (write)
-Beber (drink)
-Hablar (talk)
-Leer (reading)
We continued to identify and find words that rhyme. We reviewed the names and shapes of the letters. A-E-I-O-U-M-P-S-L-T-D-R-C. To reinforce the learning of the letters we did an activity where we had to find those letters in magazines and cut them out and paste them on a cardboard, using teamwork.
This week we went to OMSI (our field trip). This was a great day full of fun and new learnings. We enjoyed the change in the routine and they took every opportunity to experience and learn something new.
Las matemáticas
We continue with learning numbers up to 24, practicing strokes and quantities. Also the children began to count one by one, the goal is to reach 100! In order to understand the representation of the quantity in the numbers we did a fun activity with paper-cut hands, each child got their hands which we will be using during the school year.
Science
We finished some fun activities surrounding The Little Red Hen this week and learned about the how farmers take care of their crops. We had a great time at OMSI. The class got to have preview experiences into many things that we will be learning about this year in science, including taking care of the environment, the 5 senses, and plants´ needs. It was a great field trip!
Our weekly objectives were to:
• describe the farmers job
• describe how Farmers protect their crops from drought and pests
• sequence the seasonal rhythm of planting, growing, and harvesting
• identify bread as a product from wheat
History & Geography
We finished our unit on nursery rhymes and fables. We spent some time reviewing and then took an assessment on Friday.
Our weekly objectives were to:
• listen 2 and understand the dog and his reflection
• describe the main character, the dog
• understand the fables often have animal characters that act like people (personification)
• retell the events of the fable
• understand that fables teach a lesson that is stated as the moral of the story
English Sight Words of the Week
yellow, do, in, of, it, see
Character Education
Our focus during the month of October is Teamwork and Cooperation. We brainstormed teamwork and what that means to them. We then talked about how cooperation (talking about and agreeing on methods) helps us to work better as a team. We will be highlighting how important communication is when we are working with others. Agreeing on rules and methods helps everyone! Right now we are still working together to point out acts of kindness we see others doing. Kiddos tie a ribbon on our school Kindness Wreath each time they see someone doing something kind.
by Marci & Ivary | Oct 5, 2019 | First Grade News
La Lectura
This week we began our unit Los animales. Our objectives were:
- discuss the differences between our new unit and our old unit (nonfiction vs. fiction)
- practice blending with m (ma, me, mi, mo, mu)
- use the reading skill asking questions during our first read of Los mapaches
- use the comprehension skill compare and contrast during our second read of Los mapaches
Las matemáticas
This week worked with adding numbers up to 10. Our objectives were:
- use the skill counting-on to add
- understand the commutative property of addition with number bonds
- practice saying addition sentences in Spanish
Science
This week in our Astronomy domain we continued to read about the history of space exploration and astronauts and began learning about the planets. Our trip to OMSI was a great way to learn interactively about our solar system and all kinds of other science topics.
Our weekly objectives were to:
• understand that astronauts travel to outer space
• state that the moon orbits the earth
• explain that our solar system includes the sun and the planets that orbit around it
• indicate that there are eight planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune)
History & Geography
Pyramid architects
This week in our Ancient Egyptian studies we learned about gods and goddesses and pyramids. On Friday the class had fun building pyramids with tooth picks and marshmallows.
Our weekly objectives were to:
• locate Egypt on a world map or globe, and identify it as part of Africa
• explain the significance of gods and goddesses in ancient Egypt
• locate Egypt on a world map or globe and identify it as a part of Africa
• identify pyramids
• explain the significance of pyramids in ancient Egypt
• describe how the pyramids were built
English Sight Words of the Week
girl, give, good, him, how, here
Character Education
Our focus during the month of October is Teamwork and Cooperation. We brainstormed teamwork and what that means to us. We then talked about how cooperation (talking about and agreeing on methods) helps us to work better as a team. We will be highlighting how important communication is when we are working with others. Agreeing on rules and methods helps everyone! We did a few team building activities that involved cooperation! (The kiddos had already modeled great cooperation by working together to put away the heavy block bin at the beginning of class.)
Right now we are still working together to point out acts of kindness we see others doing. Kiddos tie a ribbon on our school Kindness Wreath each time they see someone doing something kind.
Brown Bear/ Oso Café
In addition, during our sense of taste the kids learned that the senses working together with the tongue, mouth and nose. These senses send messages to the brain and we can taste things, as well, that we have taste buds that help us taste different things; sweet-dulce, sour-ácido, salty-salado, bitter-amargo. They learned that the sense of taste also helps to protect us from eating spoiled or poisonous foods.
LIBRO
